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Saturday, April 12, 2014

K is for King

My Favourite Things: K is for Stephen King

I've talked a lot about my discovery of ghosts and horror in many a post over the years, but I certainly would not have developed my love for this genre without the benefit of Stephen King and Peter Straub, two very influential authors in my life. Who really hasn't been influenced by Stephen King if you are a fan of the horror genre? There really is no other genre that can leave me petrified at three in the morning, afraid to turn off the lights, having to go to the bathroom, afraid to step off my bed, knowing whatever is under there will eat me. I remember when I was young I had to jump from the bed to the hallway, which was quite a feat for a young child, and one day I missed, hit the door frame, and knocked myself out. Luckily mom was outside doing whatever she did in the garden and never knew what happened, but after that I crawled over my night table, swung on the closet door, and leapt out the bedroom that way. Kids do some crazy things, don't they? And while there were times I cursed my mom for allowing me to read whatever I wanted, I really was not serious about those curses and hoped the goblins never heard them.

My first experience with Stephen King is the novel Carrie. I couldn't really tell you what I thought about the novel at that age as it is clouded with an adult viewpoint, but I do remember being afraid whenever a kid looked at another kid with this certain look at school. I remember thinking, this is it, we're all toast, and treaded quite lightly for a few months so I wouldn't upset anyone in case they had secret powers. I did dress up as Carrie for Hallowe'en a few years ago, before the remake came out, and nobody knew who I was except for those die-hard King fans out there.

Pet Sematary is another one of those books that affected me profoundly because I was realizing that many of these books don't have a happy ending. And it terrified me. I remember reading this one Peter Straub book, Ghost Story, and I had the Just One More Page Disease, reading into the wee hours of the night,

and slept with the light on for the first time in years. My dad actually laughed his head off when he found out why I was sleeping with the light on; it was not quite the response I was expecting but it was better than anger. Luckily, I didn't tell him I was up all night reading the >> book. But between these two books, I gathered that these books don't always end up happily and were not fairy tales and it left me quite apprehensive as to what would happen. I was too young to really appreciate the 'horror' affect that had on me as I read and why they fall in that genre. Pet Sematary is one of those books I really admired both for the setting (should I mention my fascination with cemeteries in this post?) and for the anxiety it caused.

The Long Walk is the one story that really had an impact on me however, as I realized how far horror

could go and how easily it could happen in our society. One hundred boys began to walk on a beautiful day in May, only to realize what would happen if they stopped, became ill, or had any other problems. The way the story circled in on itself and brought the reader in on its horror was amazing and I'll never forget how I felt. Can I say I was now completely hooked? I felt manipulated, drained, and thoroughly thrilled at being put through the wringer by a book. It was amazing, and I couldn't wait to read more.

Today, I am still looking for that feeling I had when I was thirteen. While I had been fascinated by many a book before this, there is something about this genre, and about this author, that I really, really like. In fact, I'm thinking it's been too long since I've read a Stephen King and it's time to go dig one out. Cheers, everyone!!

6
comments:

I'm a huge Stephen King fan as well. The Long Walk was one that I always really liked. As well as the one with the boy who discovered the old Nazi living by him. My favorite though is It. If you have time, and want to, you can check out my K post.

I go through these phases and I went through a really long phase as a teenager where I devoured horror novels. Today, it's no longer a phase, but every once in a while I like to read a really scary book. However, I will clarify in mentioning that it's the psychological scary I am looking for, not what I call the "slash and gash" scary that some of these horror writers tend to write.

Nice post. Bet King is a popular one for K. I haven't read any of the horror books but I've seen 2 of the movies adapted from the books. I saw Thinner when I was a preteen (just a weird movie in general) and I own Rose Red, which is one of the few horror movies I like.

I read The Eyes of the Dragon by King and a small bit of The Gunglinger but that's all I've done reading wise. Okay, and a tiny bit of On Writing, just didn't get very far into it.

I'm sure he is popular too, but I don't talk a lot about him on this blog so I thought it was kind of nice to do so for a change. The only books I wasn't crazy about are his The Dark Tower series; I'm not sure why, but I just didn't fancy them as horror/fantasy works and never got past the first book. As far as his movies go, the only ones I've seen are The Shining, Carrie, and Christine. I'm not a big fan of book to horror movie adaptations so if I've read the book, I don't watch the film, and vice versa.

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